One 51 seeks approval to reduce share capital

One 51 Plc, the holding company for 105 companies in the One 51 group, is seeking court approval for a reduction of share capital which will see the balance in its share premium account reduced by €200m to €62m.

The company is taking the step both to eliminate losses and to have €15m available to pay dividends.

Mr Justice Peter Kelly this week granted an application by Brian Kennedy, for One 51, for directions for advertising of the petition prior to its hearing in the Commercial Court on March 6. If the reduction is approved by the court, almost all of the reserve so created will be applied to eliminate accumulated permanent losses, the petition states.

The proposed reduction of capital, according to the petition, is just and equitable and will not involve dimunition of any liability in relation to unpaid capital.

One 51 Plc, with registered offices at Thomas St, Dublin, is the non-trading holding company of a group of some 105 companies, many of whom are not active and some of whom are being wound up or dissolved. The group comprises five trading divisions — plastic, hazardous waste, metals, materials recycling and food.

Its direct subsidiaries include one unlimited company, One 51 Treasury Services, which has no creditors outside the group and whose only substantial liability is to the holding company itself. One 51 Plc has fully provisioned for that, in that it has treated it in accounting terms as unrecoverable.